Featuring articles by Dr. Shalit as well as updates, news and reviews about his many publications.

Monday, June 26, 2017

Stephen Hawking looks for excitement and purpose

I do not doubt
that renowned physicist Stephen Hawking is extremely intelligent.

I am not
intelligent enough to judge.

I certainly trust that he knows a lot about the
universe – again, my limited understanding of physics and much else does not
put me in a position of doubt, and I have no reason to.

However, does
that mean that he is right, or that he is wise, or that he
necessarily understandshumanity better than other social philosophers, critical
thinkers, or even physicists – or the laymen among us?

In November
2016 he gave humanity another thousand years left on planet Earth. Half-a-year
later he revised and reduced his prediction, and gave humanity only a hundred
years.

I have not seen
that this revision is based on any empirical or other kind of research, but
merely Hawking’s speculations, which with such a quick and drastic change seem more related
to his emotions and personal projections - which is fine, unless it hides
behind the mantle of science.

“If humanity
is to continue for another million years, our future lies in boldly going where
no one else has gone before.”

"We are
running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds. It is time
to explore other solar systems. Spreading out may be the only thing that saves
us from ourselves. I am convinced that humans need to leave Earth," the
Cambridge University theoretical physicist explained. “We need to rekindle the
excitement of the early days of space travel in the sixties.”

Oops – is he
looking for excitement??

[Leading
nations] should aim to build a lunar base in 30 years’ time and send people to
Mars by 2025, he said, and added that the goal would re-ignite the space
program, forge new alliances and give humanity a sense of purpose.

“Give humanity
a sense of purpose”!!!!!

Well, it is
certainly important to look both for excitement and a sense of purpose.

Caring for the
well-being of Mother Earth, the Other in this world – nature, wildlife,
the other tribe/nation and human being – may be no less exciting and purposeful.

Ecology comes from
the Greek oikos, meaning house, dwelling place, habitation. Perhaps we
need to make this Earth more of a Home, rather than escaping to other worlds. If
we merely repeat our collective behavior rather than learning new approaches, we may be the cause of as much disaster to planet Mars as what we are inflicting upon Mother Earth.

Erel Shalit is a Jungian psychoanalyst in Ra’anana, Israel. He is a training and supervising analyst, and past president of the Israel Society of Analytical Psychology (ISAP). He is the author of several publications, including The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel and The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego. Articles of his have have appeared inQuadrant, The Jung Journal, Spring Journal, PoliticalPsychology, ClinicalSupervisor, RoundTableReview, Jung Page, Midstream, and he has entries in The Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Dr. Shalit lectures at professional institutes, universities and cultural forums in Israel, Europe and the United States.